India Internet News
Looking For Email Clients Apart From Microsoft Outlook And Gmail
02 August 2011
Large companies certainly depends upon Microsoft Outlook for their emails. Private users depends upon free support from Webmail services. However there is a way to join the aspects of both to get the best of both worlds for private users.
Webmail is universal these days, mainly because the basic versions of too many systems are free online. However there are too many services out there beyond Google and Yahoo, the two biggest names in the field. The advantages are obvious. You can retrieve your mail from any computer with an internet connection and the files don't have to be downloaded onto the computer, which can be time consuming with larger attachments. In addition to this, the services filter out spam, which consititutes the majority of email traffic today.
That would be sufficient for a perfect world. But, while many people use webmail and are pleased with it, online forums are full of grievances such as slow reaction times, poor search capabilities, poor management, overzealous or pathetic spam filtering, lots of ads or very less storage space. And, at the core of it, is the fact that you must be online to do anything with your mail. In addition, many people have gathered mailboxes at different services over the years, all of which have to be checked individually. This means that, more often than not, people find they need some sort of client software for their webmail, so they can save and manage their emails.
Microsoft Outlook is the classic, but it's not free. And, in the latest versions of Office, from 2010, Outlook is not packaged in with the least price rate, Home and Student, which costs 90 euros (127 dollars). For Outlook, consumers need to search for Home and Business, which costs 260 euros.
But there are free options. Mozilla, the developer of the Firefox browser, offers its free client, Thunderbird. First advantage of its latest offering, Version 5, is a wizard to configure email accounts. Initially, people must knew the protocols such as POP3 or IMAP or STMP for each service during configuration, which was a huge barrier for some. The latest function need only the name, email address and password to enter. The wizard finds the rest in its database automatically.
Just as in a web browser, Thunderbird can be used to open particular mails in tabs, stacking on top of each other. The search engine was equipped with a quick filter, which instantly shows the results as the search is typed in. There is also a calendar to help people to quickly get the right message. There is a news archive for permanent storage. There is also a group folder where users can collect incoming mail from carious mail accounts as well as sent or archived messages. And, just as Firefox, there are a bunch of other add-ons for additional functions.
Norwegian browser specialist Opera built its email client right into its browser. Although it looks like a webmail service, the emails are stored directly on the hard disk and can be accessed offline. Once an internet connection is available, Opera synchronizes the machine with the mail server. Instead of the normal folders, Opera Mail uses filter views, for instance, for news or for specific people or topics with a set keyword.